D.C. United

First Kick 2013 Countdown: 31 Days - Where does Joe Willis rank among MLS backup goalkeepers?

As the 2013 MLS season approaches, we're counting down the days to March 2 and running the proverbial rule over each player on D.C. United's roster. Today's subject: backup GK Joe Willis.

Joe Willis is a rather large gentleman. If you pay attention at all to his blonde facial hair, he also frequently looks like he's spent considerable time lost in the Rocky Mountains, which is borderline conceivable for the Colorado native and University of Denver product. He might actually be Bigfoot, now that I think about it. Willis came to D.C. United in the 2011 SuperDraft (but he'd be a supplemental pick in today's more truncated SuperDraft), a member of the same class that gave us Perry Kitchen and Chris Korb, and the 24-year-old has been Bill Hamid's primary backup basically ever since.

Willis appeared in 11 games during the 2012 regular season, starting 10 of them and stepping in for a red carded Hamid in the other. That's a larger load than we'll usually expect for Willis, because Hamid spent a considerable portion of the early season away with the U.S. Olympic Qualifying team. In those ten games and 72 minutes, Willis faced 50 shots and allowed 19 goals, good for a goals against average of 1.76 and a 62% save percentage.